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In Reply to: Should I? Maybe not. Ah, why not. posted by opinionated on April 30, 2007 at 12:06:36:
What an ass Mehldau is. I don't know what he is playing nowadays, but his early shit was definitely influenced by Evans. And, for sure, Evans's music will outlive all our contemporaries' stuff. This is all about their ego and "legacy" that will not last. They know that. Can't do great music, but can do big-mouth talk. Marsalis is another GREAT example.
Follow Ups:
"Evans's music will outlive all our contemporaries' stuff."What!!???!!!!
I've nothing against Evans but the notion that there are no contemporaries that work at his level is absurd. You're just trading one prejudice for another. It's great that you like him that much but like anyone, he is NOT and should not be considered to be all things to all people.
Andrew Hill, for only one week now the *late* Andrew Hill, is much more interesting and involving to me. But that's because my taste veers more strongly in another direction.
> he is NOT and should not be considered to be all things to all people <Where did I say or imply that? Why are you making things up? I was talking about Evans in the context of Mehldau, and contemporary jazz.
It really is none of my business if you like Evans or not, and nor do I care for that matter, but by "contemporaries" I meant contemporary jazz artists in general, and Mehldau as their representative. He'll be forgotten, as well as hundreds of his likes. The fact that Hill played until recently, doesn't make him a contemporary jazz artist, he is/was a classic of *modern* jazz and I like him a lot.
You saved me from a rant. Evans was able to give jazz a shape and direction while Mehldau bores the hell out of me. Legacy??
Melhdau bores you? Fine, why not leave it at that? Why extrapolate your taste to some measure of absolute worth?[snip]
That duality is what I love about Brahms, so it might pop out in an improvisation or a composition of mine. One of the great aspects of jazz for me is the way you get influenced. First, you’re a fan. You get the goose bumps; you become bewitched by the music. If that process doesn’t take place, then whatever music – be it Brahms, Jelly Roll Morton or klezmer – won’t find its way into your vocabulary for very long, unless you’re on some weird mission to play music you don’t dig. Anything is fodder. With a kind of Pavlovian logic, what comes out of your horn will be your own happy bastardization of what you love the most – whatever music seduced you initially. "Should I study classical music?" is the wrong question for an improviser. If you don’t dig it, it won_t do anything for you.
[snip]
Alas, improvisation itself can be construed as a kind of interpretation: the direct, heartfelt interpretation of what’s closest to you at any given moment. But in that moment when my riff on Brahms slides out, it has no cognitive baggage. Theorizing comes later. Again, the rift between audience and player lessens in that appraisal. The pleasure I take in creating something, free of theoretical baggage, sounds very much like the non-referential, wordless pleasure that I receive from listening to music.
– Brad Mehldau, 2000
[end snip]
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"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods." - Albert Einstein
Wow! That was impressive.Mehldau still bores me.
Some time ago we discussed my trip to KC and plans to see Wallace Roney at the Jazz Museum.He showed up with a quintet format (no turntable) and performed a very nice straight-ahead show. It was nice to see that he had young players on piano and bass "in school" for the performance.
A highlight for me was to see KC's Bobby Watson at the bar when the show started. He joined the band half-way through the first set and stayed on for the second set. He and Wallace acted like old buddies and jammed very well together.
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"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods." - Albert Einstein
I'm happy for you because he has been using a turntablist which did turntable a lot of people off. He does much electric stuff around here. I think Watson and Roney are old buddies at least from them living around here for a while. I worked in a club in NJ (around 1980) when Bobby Watson came in with a band unannounced and asked if he and the band could play a few tunes. They did and ended up with a weekday night gig about 4 weeks after that for 1 night but was hired a couple of times after that for a night here and there. Interesting way to get a gig. Doesn't happen too often.If you have a chance look up Anat Cohen (sax) and her brother Avashai (trumpet) and her other brother Yuval (sax). She just came out with 2 new albums, Poetica and Noire. You might dig 'em.
Good luck,
bgs
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